


27 Club

by anna_chronistic



Series: Autopsy [1]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: 27 club, Anachronistic Language, Autopsies, Canon Era, Forensics, Gen, I'm sorry I don't know how they talked in the 19th century, M/M, Mild Comic Relief, Post-Barricade, everyone dies, this is supposed to be sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-06-21
Packaged: 2018-11-15 11:21:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11229900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anna_chronistic/pseuds/anna_chronistic
Summary: A coroner and a medical examiner try to identify a body of someone who was killed at the June rebellion.





	27 Club

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea how forensics/mortuary practices were in the 1830's. So sorry if it's inaccurate for the time period.

Prologue: lines from **Waiting for the Sun** by The Doors

_Can you feel it_  
_Now that spring has come_  
_That it's time to live in the scattered sun_

_Waiting for the sun_  
_Waiting for the sun_  
_Waiting for the sun_  
_Waiting for the sun_

_Waiting, waiting_  
_Waiting, waiting_  
_Waiting, waiting_  
_Waiting, waiting_

_Waiting, for you to come along_  
_Waiting, for you to hear my song_  
_Waiting, for you to come along_  
_Waiting, for you to tell me what went wrong_

~~~~~~~~After the June rebellion, at the morgue~~~~~~~~

Dr. Fréchet and Dr. Gâteaux had an unusually high amount of bodies to autopsy. Dr. F. was a coroner that worked closely with law enforcement, and Dr. G, medical examiner. The next body up for autopsy was on a table covered in a sheet.

Fréchet took the sheet off the table. The body was that of a boy, possibly a student. He moved the shaggy hair away from his face, revealing a bullet wound that suggested he had been shot in the face. There were also 4 more bullet wounds on the neck and chest.

"The cause of death was obvious," says Fréchet. "This person was shot 5 times, and that's what killed him."

"Not quite," said Gâteaux. "You can see that he isn't bleeding from the mouth. If the shots to the chest/neck were the ones that killed him, then he would have aspirated blood. Therefore, the first shot to the face is what killed him and the other shots were post-mortem. I think I can recreate what happened: he was shot execution-style in the face, killing him instantly. The assailant then shot him 4 more times as he was dead on the ground." Gâteaux had gone to medical school for years, and he had never seen such a violent method of execution before.

"That looks like a classic case of overkill," said Fréchet. "Yeah, whoever killed this person must have really hated him," Gâteaux said, cringing. "I feel sorry for this guy."

Next, the doctors were to figure out the time of death. "Rigor mortis has appeared in the face and neck, suggesting he may have been dead for up to 6 hours," Fréchet explained. "That puts the time of death at the final battle of the June rebellion," said Gâteaux. "This guy almost made it to the end," Fréchet said with a bit of sorrow in his voice.

Now came the most difficult part: identifying the body, although Gâteaux could have sworn he'd seen this guy before. The coroner and the medical examiner went through the standard procedures.

_sex: male_  
_age: late teens_  
_height: 5'4"_  
_weight: 110 lbs_  
_hair: blonde_  
_eyes: brown_

The boy didn't have any identification on him, so with this information alone, they weren't getting anywhere. "Any additional remarks?" Gâteaux asked. "There are several slits on the right wrist. Some of them are scarred, and others are more recent," Fréchet said rolling up the boy's shirtsleeves. "He might have gone to the hospital to get bloodletting done, because slicing your wrists is apparently the best way to treat illnesses in this day and age," Gâteaux said sarcastically.

"What if they're self-inflicted?" Fréchet guessed. "If they are self-inflicted, then that means he was left-handed," Gâteaux remarked. "Wow, there are a lot of scars. Maybe he was often ill?" said Fréchet.

"I don't know. He looks alright to me," said Gâteaux. "Maybe he's just _thinks_ he's ill. You know, a hypochondriac?" Fréchet suggested. "Also, one of the legs is slightly shorter than the other, which could mean that he walked with a cane," Fréchet observed.

Suddenly, Gâteaux's face was frozen in disbelief. "I know this person! His name is Matthieu Joly, and he's 27 years old but looks like a teenager. I went to medical school with him."

"How can you be so sure?" Fréchet asked.

"This all adds up," said Gâteaux. "What are the chances of finding a small, left-handed hypochondriac that walks with a cane on the autospy table? I'm telling you, he's just the same as Matt from medical school."

 _Matt? That's a weird-sounding French nickname_ , Fréchet thought. 

"I just didn't recognize his face initially because he got shot," said Gâteaux. The blank look on the dead man's face broke his heart. This was the first time he saw Joly not smiling or looking incredibly confused.

"I know that this sounds bad, but I kind of thought that kid was a chicken," Gâteaux said. "Joly was afraid to come near the dead bodies with all the blood and stuff. I kept telling him that you're not any more likely to catch diseases from corpses than you are from a living person. But now I can see that I was wrong to call him a coward," he continued. "It was so brave of him to fight in a rebellion that did not guarantee that anyone would make it out alive. I never would have imagined that!"

Gâteaux reflects on the memories and stupid puns that he and Joly shared in the years of university and sighs. Rigor mortis hasn't appeared on the arms yet, so Gâteaux crosses Joly's arms as if he were at an open casket funeral. Besides the gunshot wounds, Joly looks tranquil with his small hands resting on his shoulders. "Rest easy, buddy," Gâteaux says to Joly.

~~~~~~~~1 hour later~~~~~~~~

Now that he has been identified, Dr. Fréchet took Joly's body to get cremated. Dr. Gâteau didn't come, because the experience would be too painful for him to see. During times with high death tolls, more people were getting cremated because it was faster than a conventional funeral. "Thanks, Monsieur Marcineaux," Fréchet said to the owner of the crematorium. Joly was cremated after he joined what would be known in the future as the 27 club.

**Author's Note:**

> [Song reference: Waiting for the Sun by The Doors](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1WnrjciO8c)  
>  5'4" = 1.63 m  
> 110 lbs = 51 kg  
> Coroners work more closely with law enforcement than medical examiners.


End file.
